‫م‪.‬م‪ .‬محمد مؤيد و م‪.‬م‪ .‬مصطفى برهان‬ ‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‪...

‬‬
‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس (صورة الفنان في شبابه)‬

‫‪Modern Bildungsroman in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist‬‬

‫‪as a Young Man‬‬
‫‪Mohammed Muayad Yousif‬‬ ‫محمد مؤيد يوسف‬
‫‪Assistant Lecturer‬‬ ‫مدرس مساعد‬
‫‪Mustafa Burhan Maho‬‬ ‫مصطفى برهان محو‬
‫‪Assistant Lecturer‬‬ ‫مدرس مساعد‬
‫‪Chihan University-Duhok‬‬ ‫جامعةةةةةة جي ةةةةةان‪-‬دهةةةةةو ‪ -‬قسةةةةةم ال ةةةةةة‬
‫‪Department of English‬‬ ‫اإلنك يزية‬
‫‪mohammed.yousif@duhokcihan.edu.krd‬‬
‫‪mustafa.burhan1987@gmail.com‬‬
‫‪07701853700‬‬
‫تاريخ القبول‬ ‫تاريخ االستالم‬
‫‪2021/5/5‬‬ ‫‪2021/4/5‬‬
‫الك مات المفتاحية‪ :‬صورة ل فنان في شبابه ‪ -‬جيمس جويس ‪ -‬بي دون سرومان ‪ -‬تيار الوعي‬
‫‪Keywords: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young- James Joyce-‬‬
‫‪Bildungsroman- Stream of Consciousness‬‬
‫الم خص‬
‫على مدار تاريخ األدب‪ ،‬تطورت الحركات والتقانات األدبية‪ ،‬ويعزى إلى تعزيز التقدم الفوري‬
‫في عقد البشر من حيث المشاعر والتجارب الفردية‪ .‬مثل هذه التجديدات واالستحداثات خاصة‬
‫في العصر الحديث لها عالقة فورية وطيدة مع التفاعالت السياسية المعاصرة والدراسات‬
‫النفسية واالجتماعية والثقافية الجديدة‪ .‬ولقد انسجمت رواية تشكيل البطل كأسلوب أدبي تقليدي‬
‫بشكل كبير مع العصر الحديث‪ ،‬حيث األسلوب المستخدم فيها يحاول تقديم نبذة عن‬
‫الشخصية المنعمة بالتطور وعملية النضج‪ .‬تسعى هذه الدراسة إلى تناول رواية "صورة الفنان‬
‫في شبابه" للروائي جيمس جويس كرواية تشكيل البطل الحديثة‪ ،‬مفس ار التقانات المستخدمة في‬
‫هذه التحفة األدبية‪ .‬بعد تقديم جيمس جويس روائيا معاص ار وحديثا‪ ،‬سيتم تعريف وتقديم مفهوم‬
‫رواية تشكيل البطل الحديثة بشكل مفصل‪ .‬البحث يشمل ثالث اقسام‪ :‬مقدمة وتعريف رواية‬
‫تشكيل البطل ونقاش الرواية قيد الدراسة‪.‬‬

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Abstract
Throughout the history of literature, literary movements and
techniques have developed due to the instant progressive enhancement
of human complexities in terms of feelings and individual experiences.
Such literary innovations, especially during the modern era, have an
instant relation with contemporary political interactions and new
psycho-social and cultural studies. Bildungsroman as a traditionally
used literary technique has been dramatically adapted to the modern era
since the technique itself attempts to provide an account about the
matured and one’s process of maturation. This study endeavours to
inspect Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a modern
bildungsroman, explaining the techniques that are used in this
masterpiece. After introducing James Joyce as a modern novelist, a
detailed definition will be offered about the concept of modern
bildungsroman. This research comprises three sections: an introduction
to James Joyce’s life, a definition of Bildungsroman, and a discussion
of the novel in question.

476
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
1. Introduction
In 1817,Karl von Morgenstern, a German philologist, coined a
new term under the title of Bildungsroman. Though the style and
technique was used previously by many writers such as Daniel Defoe,
the term was not used until the second half of the 19th century and
eventually reached to its apex during the middle decades of the
nineteenth century, both in the United States of America and the United
Kingdom. The term refers to those novels in which concentrate on the
process of mental and physical maturation of the main character. The
etymology of the term is originated from two German words,
‘Bildungs’ and ‘roman’ ‘Bildungs’ meaning formation and ‘roman’ is
an equivalent of novel in English. As a matter of fact, this genre of
novel includes various subdivisions, such as; Kunstlerroman
(development of the artist), Entwickslungroman (novel of
development), Zeitroman(a type of coming of age novel which blends
the development of the main character and the period he lives within,
simultaneously), and Erziehungsroman (novel of education) (The
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998).
Historically, this genre of prose writing was commonly
favourable to many writers until 1860. Most of the novels which have
expanded this genre of prose composition intend to drift the reader to a
higher individual enlightenment as the central character becomes
mature and develops through undergoing certain life circumstances
during a long span of life. One of the most significant aspects of
Bildungsroman is the motif of journey which involves the process of
self-discovery and maturity in the end(Milne, 2009, p.70).The process
of maturation follows a certain pattern: hence, the main character after
acquiring certain skills or specific knowledge, due to the hardship and
circumstances of life, and then after ages, finds the best setting to apply
his exceptional talents.
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‫م‬2022 - ‫هة‬1443 )6( ‫) العدد‬2( ‫المج د‬ ‫مج ة التربية ل ع وم اإلنسانية‬

While German novelists focus more on the mental and

psychological struggles of the main characters, English writers intend
to be more interested in making the hero’s battle more complicated
with the outer world in order to establish and identify individual
identity.
Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882. As a middle-class
Dubliner, his family’s economic situation declined rapidly, though it
did not affect Joyce’s educational situation. He afforded a brilliant
Jesuit education, in which it is alluded to some extent in his quasi-
autobiographical novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Graduated from University College in 1902, Joyce left Ireland and
moved to Europe. After a period of time, in 1903, he returned back to
Ireland because of his mother’s unstable health situation. After her
death (1904), Joyce denied his Catholicism and with his wife left
Ireland to Europe for ever. Joyce continued his life in Italy, France,
Switzerland, and Zurich as a language teacher and this experience of
his life made him aware of the Development of Basic Senses in
Absence of an Advanced Lingual Communication in which is mirrored
in his novel. It was during this period of his life that he wrote one of
the most stigmatic works entitled Ulysses (Fargnoli, Gillespie and
Fargnoli, 2006, p.3).
James Joyce is an Irish prominent and iconic figure in
English Literature during the modernist literary period that devoted
most of his life to working as a novelist, short story writer, poet,
playwright, and critic. Though he has written in various genres,
including poetry and drama, Joyce’s fame comes from his exceptional
novels and short stories such as; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man( 1916), and Ulysses (1922), and Dubliners. Joyce’s influential
works are still studied widely in universities and read by people all over

478
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
the world. Numerous interpretations of his works are being offered by
various well-known critics such as Harold Bloom. His works are bound
to the modern issues that surround the modern man in the modern age,
aspects such as; religious, historical, quasi-autobiographical, and
feminist, social, and political themes (Fargnoli, Gillespie and Fargnoli,
2006, p.90).

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‫م‬2022 - ‫هة‬1443 )6( ‫) العدد‬2( ‫المج د‬ ‫مج ة التربية ل ع وم اإلنسانية‬

2. Modern Bildungsroman in James Joyce’s APortrait of the Artist

as a Young Man
It is a fact, literally acknowledged by the men of literature,
that literature as a living existence has undergone certain evolutions
and devolutions due to the circumstances of each era. Modern English
novel has not been an exception, and its adaptation through the modern
age is totally vivid in terms of themes, techniques, characterization,
symbols, motifs, and language. Development of science in different
perspectives, first and second world war, the appearance of
colonization and its consequences , formation of various societies that
were following different values and norms were some of the most
important factors that made the Modern English novel alter its concerns
from its previous ages that were basically founded on religious values
and mindset.
James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is one of
the modern coming of age novels which deals with the process of
maturation of its main character, Stephen Dedalus. The novel is written
as a quasi-autobiographical one, based on the authentic life of the
author himself, that’s why to have a better understanding of the work,
one should have a general knowledge about the biography of the writer.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man can be considered a modern
Bildungsroman novel due to its exceptional traits and elaboration of the
modern techniques for illustrating mental and physical maturation of
the main character. Though, throughout the novel history, numerous
novelists, such as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, have tried to have
dynamic characters based on the character’s response to the natural
surrounding environments, still few of them have been really successful
to portray a real state of mental and physical maturation as Joyce does
in his masterpiece A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

480
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
James Joyce, in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man breaks the boundaries and unlike his other English folks illustrates
his main character’s maturation from both inner and outer aspects.
Stephen’s mental maturation and his development of understanding
about his identity regarding the conservative society that surrounds him
is the best example of Joyce’s innovation of Bildungsroman in English
literature. This fact has basically a profound root in Joyce’s spending a
big portion of his life outside Britain; hence no one can deny the great
impact of the European secular and innovative mindset on his fictive
works.
Beyond any shred of doubt, James Joyce started a new trend in
English literature, more specifically Bildungsroman prose composition,
by blending it with specific techniques in which can deal and reveal the
main character’s mind and psychology in a way that the main
character’s process of mental maturation is mirrored through Stream of
Consciousness, and Development of Basic Senses in Absence of an
Advanced Lingual Communication. Through elaboration of these
modern techniques that are based on modern psychology, the reader
lives through the character’s mind. This process exposes the reader in
an unconscious didactic mode.
In fact, characteristics of Bildungsroman can be applied to
many novels throughout the literary history. Though, it has never been
considered as a dominant literary genre; it has an international and
universal significance, since it deals with the universal experience of
development through coming of age. Regarding Joyce and his novel,
“A Portrait subsequently moves its hero through a series of epistemic
crises, each of which expands the range of his theory and displaces its
centre of gravity” (Thurson, 2004 ,p 151). The end of each chapter in
the novel signifies a level of maturation in which Stephen undergoes as

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‫م‬2022 - ‫هة‬1443 )6( ‫) العدد‬2( ‫المج د‬ ‫مج ة التربية ل ع وم اإلنسانية‬

“Stephen’s progress in symbolic self-expression is punctuated, at the

end of each chapter” ( Aubert ,1992 , p93 ).
The story is a ‘quasi-autobiographical’ novel which is based
on the life of the author (Parson, 2007, p.38). It starts with the
childhood of Stephen Dedalus who is the central character of the novel.
We find him as a little boy who grows to a young man and eventually
decides to leave his country to Europe. This is basically to achieve his
dream which is becoming an artist.
At the beginning of the novel, Stephen who is about 5 years old
is studying at Clongowes Wood College, an elementary school for
boys. In this regard Stephen defines his primary identity as “Stephen
Dedalus is my name, Ireland is my nation. Clongowes is my
dwellingplace, And heaven my expectation” (Joyce, 2005, p.12). In this
level of his life, he shares the most vulnerable and fragile
characteristics of a young boy. He has been pushed into a drain ditch by
another student, named Wells. Next day he wakes up ill. In the
infirmary he missed home and fancied to be home with his family for
the Christmas holidays. Being young, sick, and highly vulnerable, he
calls his mother; “Dear Mother, I am sick. I want to go home. Please
come and take me home. I am in the infirmary. Your fond son,
Stephen” (Joyce, 2005, p.20). Then, Stephen’s consciousness takes the
reader to Mr. Dedalus’s house when at a Christmas dinner Stephen’s
father has a hot conversation with Dante, Stephen’s governess, about
Catholic Church and Parnell.
Once again, Stephen’s consciousness takes the readers back to
school when he has broken his medical glasses. For this, Father Arnall
has excused him from doing his classwork. Father Dolan, the perfect of
the studies, enters the class to discipline the students. Here, Stephen
becomes verbally abused and unfairly punished in front of his

482
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
classmates. This is the first time Stephen, as an immature boy, is
introduced to the concept of injustice. Stephen after being encouraged
by his classmates stands up for his right and talks to the school rector.
When the rector promises him to talk to Father Dolan, he feels that the
first epiphany of his life does not appear weak in front of injustice.
Quite significantly, the second chapter starts when Stephen is a few
years older and is a high school student at Belvedere College. Stephen
romanticizes everything based on what he reads, since he has
recognized he is interested in Literature. His strive to compose a poem
for the girl he loves with no fruitful effect. “All day he had imagined a
new meeting with her for he knew that she was to come to the play.
The old restless moodiness had again filled his breast as it had done on
the night of the party, but had not found an outlet in verse.” (Joyce,
2005, p. 76). He tries his chance in a theatre at high school, but the
result is not favourable, since his friends start to mock Stephen by
making him recite a line of the play over and over again. This incident
takes Stephen’s conscious to his English class when his teacher accuses
him of heresy.
Stephen’s father took him to Cork where Stephen’s father was
born and raised when he was as age of Stephen. There he wins an
amount of money which he spends to have fun with his family, what he
calls a ‘season of pleasure’. When he runs out of the money, readers
find Stephen in Dublin’s red light streets. The chapter ends when
Stephen has his first sexual experience with a prostitute. “ His lips
would not bend to kiss her. He wanted to be held firmly in her arms, to
be caressed slowly, slowly, slowly. In her arms he felt that he had
suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself. But his lips
would not bend to kiss her.” (Joyce, 2005, p.99).
Stephen is not bothered by the duplicity in his life, while he has
many relations with prostitutes, he goes at church. “The boys were all
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‫م‬2022 - ‫هة‬1443 )6( ‫) العدد‬2( ‫المج د‬ ‫مج ة التربية ل ع وم اإلنسانية‬

there, kneeling in their places. He knelt among them, happy and shy.”
(Joyce, 2005, p. 143). The juxtaposition of ‘happy’ and ‘shy’ in a
paradoxical statement clearly depicts such a duplicity in Stephen’s
personality. He goes to religious retreat, and the priest’s sermons
deeply affect him in a way that he goes to confession and repents.
Stephen starts a religiously dedicated life and renounces sinful
relations. “will offer up my mass tomorrow morning, said the director,
that Almighty God may reveal to you His holy will. And let you,
Stephen, make a novena to your holy patron saint.” (Joyce, 2005, p.
157). Once, the director recommends him to become a priest, but he
knows he cannot be one. Stephen has just become 16 and his father has
a plan to send him to university. One afternoon, when he is walking at
the shore he sees a beautiful woman and the state at each other, though
no verbal communication happens. Stephen considers this incident as
an epiphany and decides to devote his life to the Art. The novel ends
with Stephen’s weak performance at the university and when he rejects
to participate in a political petition, planning to move to Europe
(Attridge, 2004, p.51).
James Joyce in his coming of age novel, A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young man, used various innovative techniques that are not very
common to be witnessed among the works of his other English folks.
This novel has become an exceptional modern English bildungsroman,
thanks to elaboration of various techniques such as; stream of
consciousness, development of basis senses in absence of an advanced
lingual communication through coming of age which lead the main
character to an evolved and matured state (Bulson, 2010, p.93).
Though there is no definite definition for this style of narration
and no two critics have offered the same description for this technique,
Stream of Consciousness, as noted by Milne (2009), can be defined as

484
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
“a narrative technique for rendering the inward experience of a
character. This technique is designed to give the impression of an ever-
changing series of thoughts, emotions, images, and memories in the
spontaneous and seemingly illogical order that they occur in life”(p.
lxviii). This style of narration is one of the main techniques in which
Joyce elaborates on floating the reader’s mind through the main
character’s life settings. In addition, utilization of this technique helps
the reader to look at different issues through the main character’s
perspective and angle of vision. It is a highly acknowledged technique
in which it “offers a representation of the act of Representation, a
portrait of a mind portraying its world” (Valente, 1995, p. 190). A mere
Victorian description is totally disparate to implement these tasks, and
only a modern writer like James Joyce, via utilization of the stream of
consciousness would be able to comparatively illustrate the change in a
character’s mental and psychological horizon in different chronological
backgrounds. For instance, when Stephen is desperately sick and feels
lonely in the infirmary, he fancies being home with his family for the
Christmas holidays. Then, Stephen’s consciousness takes the readers to
Mr. Dedalus’ house when at a Christmas dinner Stephen’s father has a
serious conversation with Dante, Stephen’s governess, about Catholic
Church and Parnell. The following sentence is the shift that connects
the Stephen’s consciousness from the infirmary to his family back
home “Dear Mother, I am sick. I want to go home. Please come and
take me home. I am in the infirmary” (Joyce, 2005, p 20). This letter is
actually never written by Stephen to her mother, and is used merely to
float the setting from the infirmary to home, where her mother could
probably read such a letter, in case of sending it to her. There are many
other similar cases throughout the story when Joyce, by elaboration of a
neat shifting point, floats the readers’ mind and conscious through
different settings and Stephen’s life stages.
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‫م‬2022 - ‫هة‬1443 )6( ‫) العدد‬2( ‫المج د‬ ‫مج ة التربية ل ع وم اإلنسانية‬

Joyce breaks further and utilizes stream of consciousness to

illustrate the physical maturation and sexual awareness of the central
character, Stephen, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, who is
an intellectual, eloquent, and sensitive young man, but when his sexual
self-awareness urges him to push the limits, he finds himself at the
Dublin’s red light streets, having his first sexual relationship with a
prostitute.
Another significant technique that Joyce has used in his novel
is language and the process of maturation of the central character in a
lingual perspective. “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has often
been commended for its insistence on the creative value of language”
(Rabate ,2001 , p 59). In this respect, Milesi (2003) believes that the
passage bears biographical references to the linguistic and literary
training that empowers Joyce to gain the artistic maturity, self-
discovery, and individual autonomy (p.184).Joyce’s ability to make a
connection between language and development of a child is the result
of his long experience working as an English language instructor in
various European countries. Through his experience in teaching
language and “By carefully choosing language and syntax, Joyce
enables us to share what is possibly the earliest childhood memory”
(Zimbaro, 2002 .p 14 ).
Language development of the main character, Stephen, is one of
the tangible issues that are portrayed by James Joyce. In Joyce’s A
Portrait, “the narrator’s language, which gradually becomes more
articulate and analytic as Stephen’s intellect and capacities for
abstraction develop, which still serve as a focal point for the reader’s
access to the hero’s maturation at choice moments”( Milesi, 2003 , p.2
) . Though, Joyce cannot be categorized as an Irish nationalist writer,
due to his different religious orientation, still to illustrate the curious

486
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
and demanding conscious of Stephen regarding his surroundings he
shows an interest towards Irish nationality and language. His feeling of
alienation and exile triggers when “Stephen realizes that every word he
speaks or writes in English entails an exile from the home-grown
tongue” (Ellmann, 2010, p 7).
Stephen’s language evolves through the novel, though the
development and maturation of his other senses is more eye-catching,
and this is a neat characterization which is applied deliberately. As the
title of the novel implies, Stephen Dedalus is supposed to become an
Artist and not a religious preacher or a priest. Naturally, he needs his
basic senses to be perfectly developed.
Language seems to play an important role in Stephen’s process
of maturation, especially during his very young age, when he is
studying at the elementary school. He is alienated from his surrounding
world from many perspectives; he is not sociable at school and is not
able to make a proper communication with other kids especially when
they play, when he grows up he doesn’t have a real friend and is not
able to make a connection with the opposite sex in a way that
eventually his sexual desire urges him to visit prostitutes. All these lead
him to live in a physical and psychological exile, even though he lives
in his own land. This issue is directly connected with “Joyce’s long,
voluntary exile and dedication to aesthetic modernism”, as noted by
Nolan( 2012 ). Stephen’s incompatibility with language makes him to
compensate this vacuum through other senses that are vital to be fully
developed in order to be an artist. Readers recognize Stephen as a
potential future artist when he says; “When you wet the bed first it is
warm then it gets cold. His mother put on the oil sheet. That had the
queer smell. His mother had a nicer smell than his father. She played on
the piano the sailor's hornpipe for him to dance.” (Joyce, 2005, p. 3).

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‫م‬2022 - ‫هة‬1443 )6( ‫) العدد‬2( ‫المج د‬ ‫مج ة التربية ل ع وم اإلنسانية‬

3. Conclusion
James Joyce had an enormous share in contemporary English
literature by publication of his quasi-autobiographical masterpiece, A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, through innovative elaboration
of modern techniques and styles of narration. The work, as a coming of
age novel, through utilization of stream of consciousness and
intellectual elaboration of language, brought the contemporary English
literature to new horizons. These techniques are basically used for
various reasons by Joyce, but their ultimate aim is the formation of a
matured and experienced character like Stephen Dedalus. Throughout
his novel, Joyce has successfully managed to provide his readers with a
multi-dimensional colorful portrait of the maturation process of his
protagonist via various epiphanies whose physical senses blossom to
become a future artist.

488
 ‫ مصطفى برهان‬.‫م‬.‫ محمد مؤيد و م‬.‫م‬.‫م‬ ...‫تشكيل البطل في رواية جميس جويس‬
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